I love to cook and teach vegan cooking. In March 2006, I was inspired by cooking blogs like Vegan Lunchbox to post my dinner plate pictures.
I do my family's cooking. Since I met my wife in June 2004, I'm proud that I've not repeated a dinner for her; we weren't together every night, but since fall 2005, we've shared most dinners. I think I can keep up the unique creations through spring 2006 - maybe beyond! (Still going in March'08!)

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

I had to put a meal together relatively quickly, and was able to prepare a reasonable dinner in about 20m tonight. I had the Israeli couscous dish leftover from yesterday; it's meant to be served cold, so that just had to be served. I cut up some Easter Egg radishes for a secondary salad. Now on to the main course!

I put in one of my heavy stock pans a little less than a quarter of a medium Vidalia onion, cut into maybe 3/8" cubes, turned the pan on medium, and cooked, stirring occasionally, till almost at the point of being clear (bit of translucence on edges, but otherwise still white), about 3 minutes (I use a premium pan that needs no oil or water to keep food from sticking!). I then added a finely diced clove of garlic and an 8 ounce box of cubed seitan, including the little bit of liquid that comes with the seitan, and cooked, again stirring occasionally, for about two minutes.

I then added a carrot, sliced to about 1/4" width, and about four leaves of kale, roughly hand cut into approximately 1" pieces of leaf (stem left behind). I stirred for a minute, then added about two tablespoons of 1/4" diced sweet onion (I like putting onions in at different times of cooking to get different mouth feels), about half a cup of marinara sauce, a pinch or two of salt, about a half teaspoon of dried oregano, and two tablespoons or so of nutritional yeast. I would also have added some crushed red pepper, but my preschooler wouldn't have eaten the dish (I did add some crushed red pepper to my serving). I stirred, reduced the heat to low, and simmered for a few minutes.

Dinner was fast, nutritious with no added fat (the whole box of seitan was maybe 3g of fat), and tasty! I'd love to make similar stews with seitan and marinara, but try adding cellophane noodles or orzo, and use other vegetables.